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Racism And Racism

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Let's get one thing crystal clear: black people are not, nor have ever been, treated fairly in the United States. When they were forcibly removed from Africa and enslaved by white Americans, whites degraded them to property status. The degradation endured following the passage of the 13th amendment in 1865, which abolished slavery, as the Jim Crow color line divided America. Although the government had granted blacks equality from a legal standpoint, it quickly became evident that racism was so entrenched in American society that if blacks didn’t directly protest injustice, nothing would change, for “taught the same economics, history, philosophy, literature and religion which have established the present code of morals, the Negro’s mind has been brought under the control of his oppressor” (Woodson 10). Whites were unwavering, for they enjoyed the elevated social status and the plethora of accompanying benefits of whiteness, so they exploited legal, illegal, and extralegal tactics to quell black protests. Nevertheless, blacks remained resilient throughout the years, trudging forward and striving for what United States citizenship guaranteed them. Importantly, though, is the fact that words alone weren't sufficient; without collective and sustained action, nothing changed. Consequently, this traditional focus on the social constructs of whiteness and blackness, rather than on shared human condition, has perpetuated a vicious cycle of racism and bigotry that plagues our

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